The ELINET Association is a network of European literacy professionals, based on individual membership. It is the follow-up of the ELINET project which consisted of 80 partner organisations from 28 European countries and got funded with 3 Mio Euro by the European Commission from 2014 to 2016. If you are interested in the background and history of the ELINET project go to the Background & History page.

Vision

ELINET’s vision is that everyone in Europe shall be literate. People of all ages, regardless of social class, religion, ethnicity and gender, are provided with the necessary resources and opportunities to develop sufficient and sustainable literacy skills and knowledge in order to effectively understand and use written communication in print and digital media. The term ‘literacy’ covers reading, writing, oral communication, digital literacy, and language for the inclusion of refugee and migrant populations.

Objectives

1. to improve and advocate literacy policies and practices across Europe to support all European citizens’ and residents’ lifelong rights to engage critically and creatively with communication and learning (see ELINET’s European Declaration of the Right to Literacy)
2. to build and maintain a network of literacy experts (researchers, practitioners and policy makers)
3. to provide a communication platform to strengthen and foster collaboration and cooperation between different stakeholders in the field of literacy promotion.

Main products (created by the ELINET project):

• European Declaration of the Right to Literacy
• Country reports & frame of reference
• Good Practice examples & framework
• Awareness raising tools
• Fund raising tools
• Research reports

Thematic Working Groups 2020-2022:

1. Early and Primary Literacy (Chairpersons: Eufimia Tafa, Renate Valtin)
2. Adolescent & Disciplinary Literacy (Chairpersons: Christine Garbe, Dorothee Gaile)
3. Lifelong Learning, Multilingualism and Migration (Chairpersons: Aydin Durgunoglu, Tiziana Mascia)
4. Digital Literacy (Chairpersons: Jeroen Clemens, Colin Harrison)
5. International Literacy Assessments (Chairpersons: William G. Brozo, Sari Sulkunen)

Organisation

The General Assembly (GA) is the highest organ of the association which decides on all affairs of the association. The decisions are prepared by the Executive Committee (EC), called Board. Board Members are the chairpersons of the Thematic Working Groups (TWGs). The TWGs are responsible for the association’s activities. All ELINET members are encouraged to join a TWG according to their expertise and thematic interest. TWGs are tasked with four main responsibilities: (a) collect and review good practices to share; (b) highlight promising research; (c) prepare policy papers; (d) develop common project proposals for EU funding.

Board Members 2020-2022

• Christine Garbe, University of Cologne, Germany (Chairperson)
• Máirín Wilson Dublin City University (Secretary)
• Maria Lourdes de Dionísio, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal (Treasurer)
• Jeroen Clemens, Independent Researcher and Consultant, Netherlands
• Aydin Durgunoglu, University of Minnesota, Duluth, USA
• Tiziana Mascia, University of Bolzano / Bozen; Italy
• Sari Sulkunen, University of Jyväskylä, Finland
• Eufimia Tafa, University of Crete, Greece
• Renate Valtin, Humboldt University Berlin, Germany

Membership

Are you interested in literacy (research, practice and policy) in your country and across Europe?  If „yes“, we invite you to join ELINET: On our Membership page you will find the Statutes of our Association, information about annual membership fees and an online application form.